River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1887-03-03
THE HORSE.
Proper and Improper Breeding.


ny DIR. F. Il. PARSONS.
TIC enable any man to procure good
horse, he must have some valuable
knowledge or depend upon some one
who has. There are so many poor
horses in the country, owing to bad
breeding and bad care, that it takes
good judgment and knowledge COM
bined, to decide where points of merit
exist. or rather what are the extent of
imperfections existing in each indi-
vidual animal. Had good breeding
prevailed for the last twenty five years.
universally, in this country, we should
now be blessed with high grade of
horses for general utility purposes,
and instead of being forced to employ
experts to find good horse, they
would he so plenty that a right selec-
ton would be quite an easy matter.
The fast horse men have, since
the days of Lady Suffolk been carefully
breeding for purpose, and so success
full have they been, that now, The
American Trotting Horse is held to
be distinct breed, of as high quality
as the English running horse.
This fact is sufficient proof that had
the same care and labor been expended
in the creation of a perfect farm and
carriage horse, there would now be as
complete a result in that direction as
there has been in the case of the
.'blooded trotter." Until within few
years there has been little attention
paid to this essential style of breeding,
and so meager has been the interest
taken in it by the farmers, that, instead
of an effort to acquire correct knowl-
edge of proper breeding, they have
largely mated their mares with any
sort of stock horse regardless of ped
igree, so that the price of service was
low, and their uncultured fancy graft
fed in the appearance of the horse
thus employed. If we ask hotc can
those who have never studied the
principles of crossing and selection be
expected to breed good horses: echo
simply answers, how, and we can
expect no other answer except from
those who have studied these things,
and, generally, their opinions are G.
nored by those who know nothing
about it, and the breeding goes on in
the slipshod way, and good colts ex-
pected from degenerate sires, just as
| if no care was needed to choose the
horse to be employed Nothing is
| more true than that like begets like, +"
in this matter, and, although there
must be exceptions to this rule, it is
| true that none can doubt the general
improvement where righteous selec-
| ton of the sire has been attended to.
| OF course we admit, the better the
mare, the better the chances of sue
cess, but in this admission we hold
firmly to the position, that, the sire
must be right or the security is ex-
tremely weak. To get good horses we
must have good sires, and to get the
best of horses both the sire and dam
must be good in blood. To get the
right horse for western farmer, fit
both for farm and carriage, we must
have not only large sires, but those
that are rightly large. They must not
only be sizeable, but rightly made up,
well proportioned, with good feet and
limbs, and good activity.
Mongrel sires that are simply big,
give 10 promise of uniform progeny
hence pedigree is very important.
The right blood must be in the veins
| of the sire or it cannot be inherited by
the offspring sufficiently to give hope
of the best results, hence to raise a
mongrel stock horse even from the
choicest sire, is but promise of disaster
if the object is to reach perfectness
speedily, for 1T postpones success at
least a generation to breed from a
mongrel but once, though his progeny
be afterwards mated only with til.
best. Had l good common mares from
which l wished to commence the rails
ing of farm and carriage horses this
season, | should mate them with the
best full blood draft horse could find
and from the progeny thus obtained
would select the rightly put up mares
when of proper age. and mate them
again with pure blood, making both
such selection in the mare and in the
horse as would promise correct size
and action, and by thus selecting and
crossing should feel confident of sue
cess in due time.